Sen. Bill Nelson underwhelms voters but has double-digit lead in Dem poll

After more than 11 years in the Senate and decades on the Florida political scene, Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has a 36 percent approval rating, a 32 percent disapproval score and an “unusually low profile for a sitting two-term Senator,” a Democratic polling firm says.

But Public Policy Polling says it’s still good enough to give Nelson a 47-37 lead over U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, the GOP frontrunner, and bigger leads over former appointed Sen. George LeMieux and businessman Mike McCalister.

PPP’s poll of 700 Florida voters, which has a 3.7 percent margin of error, was conducted Thursday through Sunday — before Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater said he’s considering jumping into the GOP primary.